Recently, I contracted with a broker to transport some construction equipment from Durham, NC to Orlando, FL. The tricky part was that this particular crew had staged their equipment to be picked up, but had already left to return to Florida. Another crew would help me load it. When I got there, I identified the items to be transported: a tractor, some scaffolding and 3 pallets of stone.
The stone was not prepared for transport as you can see from the pictures. The cardboard wrapped pallets had been exposed to the weather for a few months and were in bad shape. I made a decision not to transport the stone. I called the broker in Oregon and explained what was going on and sent her pictures from my iPhone. They are the same pictures in this blog. After seeing the bad condition of the pallets for herself, the broker agreed with me and contacted the customer to inform him that I wouldn't be transporting the stone. The broker forwarded the pictures to the customer that I took only minutes earlier and was able to renegotiate the load for the same price without the stone.
A picture is worth a thousand words and I use that truth to my advantage. Most of these brokers never leave their office and only imagine what we're facing out there as drivers. I've sent pictures to them before and they always appreciate seeing what's going on where the rubber meets the road.
